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Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
Engagement Banking company Backbase has announced a strategic partnership with financial intelligence solutions provider Feedzai.
The partnership will integrated Feedzai’s Digital Trust solutions with Backbase’s Engagement Banking Platform.
Backbase most recently demoed its technology on the Finovate stage at FinovateFall 2021. Feedzai made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2014 in London.
A newly announced strategic partnership between Backbase and Feedzai aims to bring advanced financial crime prevention technology to engagement banking. The integration of Feedzai’s Digital Trust solutions with Backbase’s Engagement Banking Platform will empower financial institutions to fight fraud more effectively while preserving the customer experience.
Feedzai’s Digital Trust platform analyzes user behavior, device health, and potential threats in real-time. The cloud-based solution operates in the background, enabling financial institutions, financial services organizations, and fintechs to detect and counter online identity impersonation and manipulation attacks, while allowing legitimate users to conduct their activities unimpeded. Feedzai’s Digital Trust is effective against account takeover (ATO) attacks as well as new account fraud attempts during onboarding. It combines behavioral biometrics, behavioral analytics, advanced malware detection, and network and device assessment to provide active and preemptive defense against threats. The integration with Backbase’s engagement banking platform will provide banks with real-time, AI-powered, proactive fraud prevention, plus lower operational costs thanks to AI-powered risk assessment that minimizes false positives.
“By combining Backbase’s engagement banking expertise with Feedzai’s advanced security capabilities, we’re giving financial institutions the complete package — superior customer experience and intelligent fraud prevention in one integrated platform,” Backbase CEO and Founder Jouk Pleiter said. “Together, we’re setting a new standard for how banks can build trusted digital relationships with their customers.”
Headquartered in San Mateo, California, Feedzai offers technology that leverages AI to help businesses fight fraud and financial crime. The company’s RiskOps platform uses machine learning and Big Data to detect and defend the world’s largest banks, payment providers, and merchants from malicious online actors. Founded in 2011 and now reaching 900 million people in 190 countries with its technology, Feedzai began 2025 by announcing a partnership with Credibanco to help the Colombian payment processing company strengthen its defenses against fraud.
“As the financial services industry evolves, security can no longer be an afterthought — it must be woven into the very fabric of the customer journey,” Feedzai CEO and Co-Founder Nuno Sebastiao said. “By partnering with Backbase, we’re empowering financial institutions to deliver a unified, seamless journey that not only protects customers from fraud but also ensures they feel valued, understood, and safe.”
Backbase has been a Finovate alum since 2009. The company has won Finovate’s Best of Show award four times, including back-to-back wins at FinovateEurope in 2017 and 2018. Backbase’s Engagement Banking Platform is a composable solution that empowers banks to accelerate their digital transformations by progressively modernizing each step of the customer journey, including onboarding, servicing, lending, and investing.
Backbase’s partnership news comes a few weeks after it announced it was teaming up with Alliant Credit Union, a digital-only financial institution with $20 billion in assets and more than 900,000 members. The company also recently partnered with Nordic digital transformation consultancy Knowit. Founded in 2003, Backbase is headquartered in Amsterdam.
The week begins with news of investment in insurtech, financial wellness, and risk management. We are also seeing a number of new partnerships in payments and fraud prevention. Check back here all week long at Finovate’s Fintech Rundown for updates on the latest fintech headlines.
Digital banking solutions provider Apiture and digital solutions company Omnicommanderteam up to help banks and credit unions better communicate with their customers and members.
Gold Coast Federal Credit Union enlistsTyfone to accelerate digital transformation.
Crypto / Defi
Ripplepartners with currency exchange provider Unicâmbio to bring crypto-enabled cross-border payments to Portugal.
Insurtech
Australian digital-first insurance broking firm UpCoversecures $19 million in Series A funding.
Via its brand Polly, European digital insurance broker CLARKlaunches its first fully digital underwriting solution in the UK.
Financial software and technology company CSI partners with Mitek Systems to launch its proprietary check fraud detection solution for NuPoint customers.
Backbase and Feedzaiteam up to integrate advanced security capabilities into Backbase’s Engagement Banking Platform.
Regtech and compliance
Sardine AIraises $70 million to make fraud and compliance teams more productive.
Investing / wealth management
Halal investment research platform Musaffalaunches new equity crowdfunding round.
BrightwaveintegratesQuartr’s global database of first-party information from public companies with its document analysis capabilities.
Datalignsecures $9 million Seed funding to accelerate AI-powered financial advisory solutions.
Lending and credit
FinastralaunchesAssist.AI, an AI-powered assistant to enhance the trade finance operations within its Trade Innovation solution.
This week’s edition of Finovate Global looks at recent fintech news and headlines from Australia.
Digital private equity manager Moonfare goes live in Australia
Eligible investors in Australia stand to benefit from the arrival of digital private equity investing platform Moonfare. The Berlin-based company announced that it is bringing its wealth management technology to what is now its 23rd country. Moonfare Asia Pacific head Adam Banks, who joined Moonfare in October, noted that the firm’s APAC investor relations team is already “in active discussions with potential clients” in Australia.
Founded in 2016, Moonfare enables eligible investors to access a selection of curated funds from managers such as KKR, EQT, and the Carlyle Group. The company’s proprietary portfolio investments provide diversification and low minimums across a range of strategies, including buyout, growth equity, venture, and infrastructure. Investors on the platform can also participate in secondaries, private credit, and co-investments.
“There is clearly a growing appetite for private equity investing in Australia,” Moonfare Founder and Co-CEO Steffen Pauls said. “But so far access has been limited, especially for people wanting exposure to non-domestic managers and strategies. Moonfare’s digital private equity platform plans to fill that gap by providing seamless access to globally leading top-quartile managers.”
Moonfare boasts more than €3.3 billion ($3.4 billion) in assets under management and access to more than 110 funds. The company began the year with the appointment of Heike Hövekamp as Chief Legal & Compliance Officer. Hövekamp joins Moonfare from Société Générale, where she was Head of Compliance.
Australian regtech Nuj raises $4 million in seed funding
Is there any debate that 2025 is shaping up to be the year of regtech? The fact that regtech increasingly seems to provide fertile ground for new fintech startups may be yet another indication of the growing importance of this subsector.
Australia’s Nuj is another fintech startup that is taking advantage of interest in regtech. The company announced that it has raised $4 million in equity and debt financing to develop its superannuation data platform. A superannuation is Australia’s pension program, created to benefit of employees. They are similar in many respects to an individual retirement account (IRA) or a 401(k) in the US.
Mimecast Co-Founder Peter Bauer led a $2 million seed round as part of an overall $4 million equity and debt package. He praised Nuj’s “powerful data platform that addresses an expensive challenge across the super industry — one of staying ahead in compliance with regulations.” Founded in 2020 by Matthew McKenzie, Nuj is a data platform and insights engine that sits between superannuation funds and the regulator. The technology provides real-time insights to superannuation trustees and executives, enabling them to better manage their risk programs. The company’s platform is used by institutions such as MUFG, AMP, and Equity Trustees.
The investment in Nuj comes as regulatory reporting requirements and calls for increased transparency for superannuation funds are growing. McKenzie noted that funding will help “fuel (the platform’s) capabilities for faster data processing and sharper insights, empowering funds to make informed decisions, and driving better financial outcomes.”
Headquartered in Sydney, Nuj was founded in 2020.
Ozone API and ProductCloud team up to help Australian firms meet open banking regulations
A new partnership between Ozone API and ProductCloud will help companies in Australia comply with Open Banking API regulations, specifically Consumer Data Right legislation. The partnership will provide Australian companies with a technology platform that enables them to quickly and securely deliver open APIs aligned to the most recent version of the Australian Consumer Data Standard.
“Our platform is already helping banks and financial institutions around the world to deliver standards compliant with open banking APIs, including in line with the CDR standard,” Ozone API Co-founder and CEO Huw Davies said. “We’re really excited to combine our global expertise in open finance with ProductCloud’s innovative product management platform. Together, our solutions remove the complexity of achieving and maintaining CDR compliance, allowing organizations to focus on their core business.”
Founded in 2017 and headquartered in London, Ozone API is a leading standards-based platform designed to take the complexity out of open banking and help companies meet regulatory and commercial requirements for open APIs. In addition to its partnership with ProductCloud, Ozone API also recently announced its collaboration with FinovateEurope 2024 alum ShareID to, in the words of ShareID CEO and Co-founder Sara Sebti, “enhance the Open Banking ecosystem” and, as Ozone API GM for Europe James Bushby put it, “strengthen trust in open finance.”
Melbourne-based ProductCloud offers a cloud-based, SaaS solution that streamlines product information management for financial institutions. Serving banks, neobanks, mutuals, and non-bank lenders, ProductCloud provides a single tool for both Open Banking Product Reference Data and Design and Distribution Obligation compliance. The company was founded in 2020.
“Since launching ProductCloud back when CDR kicked off, we had our sights on being the go-to Product Information Management and CDR Compliance platform for financial institution product managers,” ProductCloud Co-founder and CEO Mark Evans said. “Partnering with Ozone API is an exciting development because they have also been a pioneer in Open Finance. Collaborating with our respective SaaS platforms and out-of-the-box APIs will provide a unique offering for rapid and cost-effective open banking compliance.”
Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.
Central and Eastern Europe
Romanian crowdfunding service provider, Venevo, partnered with regtech solutions hub iDenfy.
Lithuanian fintech ArcaPay agreed to be acquired by UK-based financial services provider Ebury.
International money movement firm TerraPay partnered with airport retailer Dubai Duty Free.
Central and Southern Asia
India-based payments and API banking firm, Cashfree Payments, raised $53 million in funding at a valuation of $700 million.
Egyptian fintech Halan Microfinance Bank expanded into Pakistan with a pledge to invest $10 million in 2025.
Indian fintech Cred became the first fintech platform to provide access to India’s central bank digital currency project.
Latin America and the Caribbean
Payment orchestration provider Yuno to launchMastercard Payment Passkey Service across Latin America.
Kuady teamed up with BridgerPay to enhance payment solutions throughout Latin America.
Latin American ecommerce company MercadoLibre now offers transactions using its payment processors in Argentina via Brazil’s instant payment system, Pix.
Personetics unveiled a number of new features for its AI-powered flagship solution, Personetics Engage, this week.
The new features will help financial institutions build personalized digital experiences that encourage their customers to better manage their financial lives.
Headquartered in New York, Personetics made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2016 in London.
Personeticsannounced a range of new features for its AI-powered flagship solution, Personetics Engage, this week. The new features are designed to help financial institutions create personalized digital experiences for their customers that empower and motivate them to better manage their finances.
“Financial institutions today need solutions that go beyond basic personalization and static insights,” Personetics Chief Product Officer Ron Agam said. “These new capabilities advance our mission of providing banks with a platform that dynamically responds to their customers’ changing financial needs, making them smarter about their money and motivated to act.”
The new features include an Activity Tracker that customers can use to see their spending, income, and cash flow for up to 12 months. This interactive overview gives customers enhanced visibility into their financial status, helping them track and manage their finances across multiple accounts from a single location. Personetics also introduced a Financial Recap feature that provides customers with an Instagram-like summary of their spending over the past seven days. The feature not only lists top merchants and categories of spending but also gives users a seven-day forecast of their projected cash balance and activities. Financial Recap helps contextualize spending for customers, making it easy to spot spending trends.
Personetics Engage will also now be equipped with Bank and User Categorization Control. This enables banks to manage transaction categorization mapping to improve accuracy. Institutions can review, recategorize, and rename categories — as well as create their own unique category designations. Customers also have the ability to recategorize transactions, increasing personalization and providing valuable feedback for their bank.
Personetics has also introduced a new level of interactive engagement between banks and customers courtesy of Custom User Journeys. This feature enables banks to build targeted, dynamic flows that collect customer preferences and adapt in real-time. These dynamic flows provide personalized financial guidance, as well as product recommendations that are based on direct customer input. To enhance engagement, the system uses customizable and interactive insights, questionnaires, and teasers..
“With these innovations, banks can move beyond static insights and truly monetize financial wellness,” Personetics VP of Strategy and Business Development Dorel Blitz noted on the company’s LinkedIn page, “inspiring customers to take action while driving meaningful business value.”
Personetics made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2016 in London. Founded in 2011 and headquartered in New York, the company provides money management and personal financial management (PFM) solutions for banks and other financial institutions. Personetics’ technology leverages AI and its financial-data-driven platform to help FIs enhance customer engagement and boost revenue. Today, Personetics serves more than 135 million bank customers around the world, and includes six of the top 12 banks in North America and Europe as customers.
Payment technology provider for financial institutions, Numeral, unveiled its fully managed Verification of Payee (VOP) solution this week.
The new offering will help financial institutions in the European Union meet new VOP requirements months ahead of the regulator’s October 9 deadline.
Headquartered in France, Numeral made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2023. The company was acquired by fellow Finovate alum Mambu in December.
Numeral, a payment technology provider for financial institutions, launched its fully managed Verification of Payee (VOP) solution this week. The technology will enable banks and other financial institutions to comply with the European Union’s VOP policy by October 9, the deadline set by regulators.
“At Numeral, our mission is to provide financial institutions with a future-proof and compliant payments infrastructure,” Numeral CEO and Co-founder Édouard Mandon said. “Given our fully managed payments hub offering, enabling our customers to comply with VOP aligns perfectly with our commitment to streamline payments infrastructures and operations. Our fully managed approach ensures they become and remain compliant without having to navigate the complexities of scheme adherence and ongoing operations.”
Numeral’s solution arrives as Europe searches for ways to fight payment fraud — especially authorized push payment (APP) fraud — and enhance payment security at a time when instant payments are becoming increasingly popular and available. To this end, new regulations for Verification of Payee (VOP) mandate that payment service providers (PSPs) give payers verification of payee details before making credit transfers.
Numeral’s VOP offering provides a managed approach that deals with all the regulatory and technical requirements involved in sending and responding to VOP requests. The solution supports the payment process from VOP scheme adherence to go-live readiness and enables account data synchronization through SFTP, API, manual upload, as well as real-time API connectivity. Numeral’s VOP technology also leverages a configurable matching algorithm that helps firms balance risk management and a seamless user experience. The company has also produced a publication, The Ultimate Guide to Verification of Payee, to help financial institutions better understand the VOP scheme.
“Account pre-validation and domestic verification solutions are extremely valuable for their intended use cases, but aren’t required to achieve VOP compliance,” Numeral Head of Product Marketing Matthieu Blandineau said. “The European Payments Council’s VOP scheme ensures interoperability across PSPs and countries by default, and our solution helps financial institutions comply with the scheme requirements on time, with minimal resources.”
Headquartered in Paris, France, Numeral made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2023, where it demonstrated its API platform that enhances payment operations by automating bank payment processing. Specifically, Numeral showed how its platform automatically sends, receives, and reconciles SEPA payments and manages payment errors via SEPA R transactions.
Founded in 2021, Numeral was acquired by fellow Finovate alum Mambu in December 2024.
What makes an address “special”? This year at FinovateEurope 2025, the designation is going to speakers addressing an especially wide range of topics — from AI to quantum computing. Some of the presentations we’re highlighting today will be on the mainstage at FinovateEurope. Others will be offered as part of our focused tracks examining topics in payments, customer experience, AI, lending, and banking risk and regulation. All of them promise to be insightful discussions on key topics impacting fintech and financial services today.
Our slate of speakers for FinovateEurope is growing by the day. Visit our FinovateEurope 2025 hub for the latest updates on who’s speaking and when.
Mainframe modernization: the journey to agile digital services in 2025
Featuring Paul Holland (LinkedIn), CTO, Astadia: An Amdocs Company, this special address looks at how tools such as Generative AI (GenAI) can help accelerate digital transformation to unlock even further modernization. Holland will also lead a conversation on how financial institutions can complement existing capabilities to successfully modernize mainframe applications at scale. Tuesday, 25 February, 10:05 am.
An Amdocs company, Astadia is an industry-leading mainframe migration and modernization firm. Astadia’s core competencies include cloud migration, refactoring, replatforming, DevOps, and managed IT services. The company has conducted more than 300 successful migrations with world-class organizations.
Countdown to Q-Day: Why Banks Must Act on Post-Quantum Authentication Now
Featuring Petr Dvořák (LinkedIn), Founder and CEO, Wultra, this special address will examine the evolution of quatum computing and the potential challenges the technology will bring to digital banking. Dvořák will discuss the migration to post-quantum authentication (PQA) and the importance of transitioning to quantum-resistant authentication before “Q-Day” — when quantum computers are powerful enough to break contemporary cryptography. Tuesday, 25 February, 3pm.
Founded in 2014 and headquartered in Prague, Wultra helps banks and fintech brands build secure digital applications. The company offers modern, compliant authentication solutions that deliver security, easy access to financial services, and straightforward deployment.
Building Interactive Data Applications with Plotly: How AI Enhances the Delivery and Usage of Data Apps
Featuring Andy Wisbey (LinkedIn), European Sales Director, Plotly, this special address is part of FinovateEurope 2025’s Artificial Intelligence Track. Wisbey will lead a hands-on session that will demonstrate how to leverage Plotly’s advanced visualization capabilities to create an interactive data application that transforms complex financial data into actionable insights. Wednesday, 26 February, 10:50am
A Bronze sponsor of FinovateEurope 2025, Plotly is a leading provider of open-source graphing libraries and enterprise-grade analytics solutions. The company’s flagship solution, Dash Enterprise, enables organizations to build scalable and interactive data apps that drive impact decision-making.
Also providing special addresses at FinovateEurope this year are:
Pedro Andrade, Key Account Director, ORACLE MySQL
Vladimir Lounegov, Co-Founder, Mbanq
Waheed Mahmood, BFSI Lead, Rackspace
Be sure to check out the Finovate blog as more speakers for FinovateEurope are confirmed. And if you haven’t picked up your ticket yet, there’s no time like the present! Visit our FinovateEurope hub today and save your seat!
Plaid and Algebrik have forged a partnership to integrate consumer-permissioned data with Algebrik’s AI-powered, digital Loan Origination Platform (LOS).
The partnership will help credit unions make better, more accurate lending decisions and provide a frictionless, transparent process for borrowers.
Plaid made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2014 in San Francisco.
A newly announced partnership between Algebrik and Plaid will bring seamless identity verification, financial data access, and better decision-making to lenders, banks, and credit unions. Algebrik is the company behind the world’s first, cloud-native, AI-powered, digital Loan Origination Platform (LOS). By integrating Plaid’s consumer-permissioned data, the company will be able to help its financial institution clients streamline the borrowing experience while maintaining both compliance and data security.
“Credit unions are the lifeblood of financial inclusion, and we’re excited to bring them cutting-edge technology that enhances their ability to serve their members by incorporating cash flow data into credit decisions,” Algebrik AI CEO and Founder Pankaj Jain said. “Partnering with Plaid allows us to reimagine the loan origination process — faster, more secure, and deeply personalized for every borrower.”
The access to consumer-permissioned real-time financial data will help credit unions and other lenders make better and faster lending decisions. Credit unions and community banks in particular are likely to realize significant operational advantages thanks to the partnership, including reduced time-to-decision and greater underwriting accuracy. The integration will help lenders conduct income verification and financial wellness assessments, while borrowers benefit from a lending experience with less friction and greater transparency.
“This alliance underscores Algebrik’s commitment to leveraging advanced technology to simplify and humanize the lending process,” Jain said. “Together with Plaid, we’re enabling credit unions to unlock greater value for their members while setting a new standard for lending efficiency and borrower satisfaction.”
Headquartered in New York, Algebrik was founded in 2024. The company’s mission is to help credit unions deliver digital loans to their members, revolutionizing the loan origination process by leveraging inclusive AI technology. In a world in which lenders and borrowers alike are faced with inefficiencies — from manual processes to disconnected systems — Algebrik blends AI-powered automation, intelligent insights, and seamless workflows to transform the loan lifecycle from borrower onboarding to loan closure.
Plaid made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2014 in San Francisco. Today, the company boasts more than 100 million users on its data and insights network and more than 12,000 financial institutions. The company’s open finance network facilitates fast customer onboarding, account verification, multi-rail payments, fraud prevention, credit underwriting, and more. Zach Perret is CEO.
Customer verification automation company Sikoia partnered with brokerage Simple Financial Planning (Simple).
Integrating Sikoia’s technology will enable Simple to automate broker workflows, saving time, boosting accuracy, and enhancing compliance.
London-based Sikoia made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2024.
One month after announcing its partnership with Tandem Bank, customer verification automation company Sikoia reports that it is working with Simple Financial Planning (Simple) to bring AI-driven automation to broker workflows. Simple will embed Sikoia’s document processing technology into its CRM platform to save time, boost accuracy, and enhance compliance.
“Together, we’re not just enhancing accuracy and compliance; we’re enabling Simple’s advisors to spend less time on admin and more time delivering value to their clients,” Sikoia Founder and CEO Alexis Rog said. “This collaboration represents a shared ambition to streamline processes, support growth, and provide brokers with tools that make a tangible difference in their day-to-day operations.”
The integration will enable Simple to access verified data in minutes, reducing administrative workloads while enabling the company to scale effectively without compromising service quality. In addition to automating manual tasks such as document verification and data extraction, Sikoia’s technology leverages AI to ensure accurate data handling and automates AML checks to assist brokers in meeting regulatory requirements.
“By integrating (Sikoia’s) solutions, our brokers can onboard clients faster and more confidently while maintaining seamless, compliant workflows,” Simple Underwriter Pamela Stewart said. “Sikoia’s expertise is setting a new benchmark in the industry, and we’re proud to work together to help our brokers excel.”
Authorized and regulated by the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), Simple is a financial advisory firm that provides tailored advice and solutions for its clients. Founded in 2013 and headquartered in Glasgow, Simple offers professional money planners who provide advice and guidance on mortgages, insurance, savings, and investments. Alex McGarvey is Managing Director.
In its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2024, Sikoia demoed its AI-powered customer application processing solution that provides automated verification for income, employment, affordability, and more. The technology automates customer application document checks, accelerating verification times, reducing document handling costs, and improving the overall customer experience. Headquartered in London, Sikoia was founded in 2021.
In addition to its partnership with Tandem Bank mentioned above, Sikoia last month announced that it was collaborating with specialist loan brokerage Y3S to enhance the customer verification process for brokers and borrowers. Integrating with Sikoia will enable Y3S to streamline multiple tasks, including biometric identity verification (IDV) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) checks. Y3S will also benefit from automated processing of key mortgage application documents.
Catch up with Finovate VP and host of the Finovate Podcast Greg Palmer as he interviews some of the most interesting entrepreneurs, analysts, and thought leaders in fintech today.
In recent podcast episodes, Palmer and his guests have covered topics including the emerging regulatory environment in Europe, the outlook for cryptocurrencies, the opportunities in conversational banking, and the challenge of financial inclusion for female entrepreneurs in the Global South.
Will Martino (LinkedIn), President and Co-Founder of Kadena, talks with Finovate podcast host Greg Palmer about crypto, the SEC, and what shifting regulations mean for the fintech industry. EP 245.
Founded in 2016, Kadena is a scalable Layer 1 Proof of Work (PoW) blockchain. The technology is purpose-built to support the demand of businesses and traditional financial institutions.
Greg Palmer sits down with Janusz Mieloszyk (LinkedIn) and Lukasz Gajewski (LinkedIn) from FinovateFall Best of Show winning company Nest to talk about their partnership with Efigence, conversational banking, and the future of customer service. EP 244.
The first AI-enhanced bank in Poland, Nest caters to both entrepreneurs and individuals with a comprehensive suite of innovative payment methods and personalized banking services.
Rory Tanner (LinkedIn), Head of UK Affairs with Revolut, talks with podcast host Greg Palmer about neobanks, predictions for fintech and financial services in 2025, and a preview of FinovateEurope. EP 243.
A neobank and fintech platform, Revolut offers multi-currency accounts, international money transfers, debit and virtual cards, as well as stock and cryptocurrency trading. Founded in 2015, the company serves more than 50 million customers around the globe.
Greg Palmer and Mary Ellen Iskenderian (LinkedIn), President and CEO of Women’s World Banking, discuss the challenges of expanding credit for women entrepreneurs in the Global South and how fintechs can help. EP 242.
Women’s World Banking is an international non-profit organization dedicated to ensuring the future of economically empowered women. To date, the organization has help provide 14 million women in emerging markets with access to transformative financial products and services.
New leadership for digital banking solutions provider nCino and the fallout from the recent ouster of CFPB director Rohit Chopra are among the major fintech headlines as the first full week of February begins.
Be sure to check back here at the Fintech Rundown all week long for the latest updates and announcement in fintech!
Digital banking
nCinointroduces new President and Chief Executive Officer Sean Desmond.
Uphold, an infrastructure provider for on-chain payments, banking, and investments resumes staking services for its UK customers who hold cryptocurrencies.
Advances in everything from digital engagement to AI have revolutionized banking and financial services. Unfortunately, these same technologies and innovations have spawned a new generation of financial criminals whose malicious activity can be launched from anywhere in the world and impact thousands, if not millions, of individuals.
What can the financial services industry do to better educate their clients about the challenge of financial crime? What tools and strategies are available to banks and other institutions to help them better protect themselves and their customers from fraudsters, cyberattacks, and other threats?
In our Power Panel on financial crime at FinovateEurope 2025 — How to harness anti-financial crime technology to meet the challenges of the digital era — we feature three experts on the topic of fighting fraud and financial crime in financial services. The panel will discuss current threats to banks and financial services companies, as well as the role of enabling technologies — including digital identity, biometric authentication, and AI — in helping businesses stay one step ahead of the fraudsters.
Our Power Panelists are:
Tom Littlechild, EMEA Senior Counsel for AML, Sanctions, and ABC (Financial Crime), Wells Fargo
Previously Santander UK’s dedicated financial crime attorney advising on AML sanctions, ABC, and criminal fraud matters, Littlechild is Wells Fargo’s EMEA Senior Counsel for AML, Sanctions, and ABC (Financial Crime).
Before joining the financial services industry, Littlechild was a specialist in white collar crime, investigations, and compliance at Ropes and Gray. LinkedIn.
Monica Carlesso, Business Platform Lead, ID & Authentication Platform, CIO Enabling Services, Lloyds Bank
A disruptor in the financial services industry with more than 15 years experience in digital product development in payments and banking, Carlesso is Business Platform Lead, ID & Authetication Platform, CIO Enabling Services, at Lloyds Bank.
Previously, Carlesso led mobile strategies and propositions in European financial services firms including Barclaycard and PosteMobile/PostePay. LinkedIn.
Chantelle Lamb, Fraud and Financial Crimes Systems Director, OakNorth
Lamb is the Fraud and Financial Crime Systems Director at OakNorth, which bills itself as the digital bank for entrepreneurs by entrepreneurs. She is a fraud prevention specialist with experience leading multiple fraud and financial crime teams across both retail and commercial financial services products.
Before joining OakNorth, Lamb was Head of Fraud at Vanquis Bank where she led the institution’s anti-money laundering and transaction monitoring efforts. LinkedIn.
Richard Neve, Managing Director & Partner, Cognito Media
Moderating the panel is Richard Neve. Managing Director & Partner at Cognito Media, Neve began his career as a daily newspaper journalist, and transitioned into financial services as a contributor to Financieel-Economisch Magazine (FEM) and a contributing editor to Banking Review.
Today, Neve manages complex and large international communications projects for fintechs and financial services companies. He works from the Amsterdam and Düsseldorf offices of Cognito. LinkedIn.
UK-based, multinational insurance company Aviva has teamed up with automated reconciliations solution provider AutoRek.
Aviva will deploy AutoRek’s platform to provide a fully audited, rules-based reconciliation process that reduces the risks associated with manual processing.
AutoRek made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2023. The company is headquartered in Glasgow, Scotland.
UK-based insurer Aviva announced a collaboration with automated reconciliation solutions provider AutoRek to enhance efficiency and compliance. Aviva will deploy AutoRek’s end-to-end platform in order to provide a fully audited, rules-based reconciliation process that ensures complete transparency for Client Assets Sourcebook (CASS) auditors, as well as internal stakeholders. The platform will enable Aviva to offer an enhanced automated solution for client money and regulatory reporting. The solution also means less manual processing and its associated risks.
“We’re thrilled to onboard Aviva as a client to the AutoRek platform, empowering them to achieve greater efficiency and accuracy in their operations,” AutoRek VP of Sales Jack Niven said. “Together, we’re driving innovation and setting new benchmarks for financial excellence.”
Glasgow, Scotland-based AutoRek partners with institutions in asset management, payments, banking, and insurance to provide a scalable, automated reconciliation software that delivers both cost reduction and data confidence. Solutions such as those offered by AutoRek are expected to be in high demand as financial regulators on both sides of the Atlantic are slated to bring greater clarity to policies relating to payments, digital assets, lending, data privacy, and more.
This was underscored by AutoRek Chief Product, Technology, and Operations Officer Jim Sadler in a recent Insider UK look at Scottish sector trends to watch for in 2025. “We can expect heightened regulatory oversight to start to bleed into the supply chains of regulated firms to ensure that compliance standards are met at every level,” Sadler said. “Companies that fail to uphold their duties can lead to serious consequences such as substantial penalties.”
Founded in 1696 as the Hand in Hand Fire & Life Insurance Society, Aviva today is a multinational insurance, wealth, and retirement business headquartered in London. The firm is the leading diversified insurer across these markets, boasting more than 19 million customers in the UK, Ireland, and Canada as of August 2024. The largest general insurer in the UK, Aviva is also the second largest general insurer in Canada. Publicly traded on the London Stock Exchange, Aviva is a member of the FTSE 100, and has a market capitalization of more than $16 billion (£13 billion).
“Aviva is dedicated to investing in technology to further our own growth strategy,” Aviva Head of CASS and Middle Office, Chris Golland, said. “Following an extensive tender process, we were highly impressed with the quality of the AutoRek tool. The implementation of the AutoRek solution will streamline our processes and allow us to confidently address future scalability and volume requirements.”
Founded in 1994, AutoRek made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2023. At the conference, the Glasgow, Scotland-based company demonstrated how its reconciliation platform helps organizations manage some of the biggest pain points in the process, providing key management information (MI) to better monitor the performance of reconciliations. Last year, AutoRek announced partnerships with JP Morgan Payments, global funds network Calastone, and technology services provider Capgemini. Gordon McHarg is CEO.
